31st October 2013

Flying sphere exploits collisions to move around

A new flying robot called GimBall has been created by a team at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne. Using a compass, altitude sensor and novel gyroscopic system, the machine can navigate its way through cramped and cluttered environments – maintaining stability even during collisions.

The researchers believe it could be useful in difficult or dangerous situations, like smoke-filled areas, for example, in which most ordinary robots would struggle to operate. GimBall will be presented at the iREX conference, a robot exhibition in Tokyo, Japan, from 5th-9th November.

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